By Ed Muniz- Photos by Alek Maslowiec
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ORLAND PARK- Anytime you reach the so called “Second Season” or as some say “Championship Season” there’s a sense of accomplishment.
You played well enough, you’re considered among the elite and deserving of extending your season with a shot at the big prize, a league or individual Championship.
The Wednesday Night Football League began its “Second Season” with games slated at various locations.
Among the sites was Schussler Park in Orland Park on October 9. The Orland Park Pioneers were lucky enough to have a home site as the destination for a pair of their teams.
The second of the two games played there saw the Varsity Pioneers welcome the visiting Homer Stallions.
For Coach Andy Rybak’s regiment, getting going took longer than expected, resulting in the Pioneers dropping a 27-20 decision and being eliminated from the four-team playoff.
Initially, the Pioneers and Stallions were playing and evenly matched game, which saw a halftime score of 7-7. Both teams took a while to get their offenses in sync as each defense had the upper hand for the most part in the first and most of the second quarter.
During the regular season, the Pioneers had a history of imploding on mental mistakes. Early on in this game, a couple of penalties stalled momentum.
The Pioneers opened the game offensively with Kyle Krokos leading the offense at Quarterback. All season, Krokos has been proficient at guiding and leading his offense. He is a smart quarterback that doesn’t make many mistakes and is confident in his play as a leader.
“At the beginning we didn’t pass much because our run was working and I thought some of us were just off,” said Kyle. “Maybe we should have passed more earlier because once we did, we scored three times. Some people got down when we got behind, so we should have picked each other up more. Just didn’t work out for us on both sides.”
Using the running abilities of Joey Driscoll and Luke O’ Reilly, the Pioneers opened the game on an 11-play drive, beginning at their own 30.
Driscoll is the speed and gets away from defenders quickly while O’Reilly is elusive but a more North and South runner that picks up hard yards. They moved their offense, but a couple of penalties stalled momentum at the worse time.
Using up nearly the entire first quarter, a fourth and three from the Homer 32 turned into a fourth and eight after a false start and after a short gain on the following play, the Pioneers had to give up the ball on downs.
The Stallions open series took all of three plays as Wyatt Heinze was all over the field defensively. On three consecutive plays. He made a tackle, defended a pass and grabbed a sack that lost 7 yards and forced the Stallions to punt.
“I was just keeping end contain and if they go outside then it’s a tackle, if they go inside, id shed the guy and get the tackle,” said Heinze. “I got a little bit tired the second half and it affected my game a little. I think I can do better offensively in my route running, I feel I was a little off, other than that, I thought I played pretty well. I saw no one was making other tackles so I decided to step up and get them to help the team.”
The Pioneers were moving the ball, but small things affected their play. A missed block or making the wrong read by cutting in instead of out at key moments gave the Stallions a better chance at making the stop and they did.
Tackles by Heinze, Driscoll, and Nolan Burns helped slow the Stallions but after working their way to the Pioneers 1-yard line, a short plunge into the endzone gave the Stallions a 7-0 lead after the extra-point try with 46 seconds left in the first half.
It took the Pioneers just one play to even the score. A slant pass to Driscoll coming out of the backfield from Krokos was caught in stride, with Driscoll showing his speed as he accelerated past every Stallion on the 70-yard touchdown pass. Driscoll also added the extra-point with just 34 seconds remaining.
A tackle by Henry Byrne and trading of interceptions, one by Driscoll and one by the Stallions, ended the first half knotted at 7-7.
The third quarter saw the Pioneers struggle on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the Pioneers couldn’t get their running game going as they did in the opening half mainly because the Stallions adjusted their coverage flanking the outside while aggressively clogging the middle.
Defensively, the Pioneers seemed somewhat tired with players getting to the ball late.
Two scores by the Stallions saw the lead grow to 20-7 after the third quarter and early in the fourth, extended their lead to 27-7. Each touchdown saw runs of 46-, 40- and 33-yards.
Trailing by 20, the Pioneers started going to the air and found success with it.
Krokos connected with Driscoll for 12 yards and followed that up with completion to Byrne that went 52-yards for the touchdown, closing to 27-13 with 5:21 left.
Harley Camargo and Cristian Arevalo quickly forced Homer to punt with their stops, giving the Pioneers another opportunity to score.
They did just that.
With just 35 second left, Krokos again connected with Driscoll who flashed his speed and got to the endzone on the 68-yard touchdown pass. He also added the extra point that brought the score to 27-20.
“I was hurt a little in the first half, my head was hurting and my leg started cramping up, so I asked to come out of the game,” said Driscoll. “I went back in and played through it the rest of the game. I watch the NFL a lot so I see what they do and I kinda copy what they do and how they play.”
“If I see a wide-open hole, I try to go for it using my speed. I also think I’m pretty good at catching the ball too. I like running the ball, but I can catch it if it comes my way too.”
Unfortunately, because there are no kickoffs in this league, although momentum firmly on the Pioneers side, they were unable to try on onside kick, so the Stallions just let the clock run out and secure the win. Just too little, too late.
Others giving their all on the field or with support from the sidelines included Ryan Beeler, Colin McElligott, Connor Ward, Colin Kluever, David Kopec, Thomas Elliott, Santino Marrella, Josiah Johnson, Ashton Brennan, Caden Votteler, Mason Overmyer, Luke Rybak, Keegan Fogarty, Layth Zughayer, Nicholas Davis, Ryan Almasri, Noah O’Kennard, Nicholas Baniewicz, Michael Sraga, Mark Grech-Lisula, Jude Doftert, Nathaniel Owei, William Reilly, Brandon Castillo, Aidan Rios, Jacob Morakinyo, Cameron Taylor, Abdallah Abuhamda, William Gardner, Ezennaya Nwachukwu, John Macros, Daniel Evers, Jack Bordelon, Brady Straka and Rhett Capps.
